The Makers

This is the Creative Network of generous and talented individuals that came together to make the Crumbling Ecologies Project.

Practicing artists, makers, crafters, writers, curators and philosophers...

By coming together we share a common thread, we now encourage you to find one another, start a conversation, collaborate and create together.  


Jess McCausland VIC

is on a visual and textural journey/mission. she liked ceramics already and now likes porcelain too. she has a lot of drawings that are waiting to be transformed from just visual into also textural and put into a kiln. she is also interested in fabric disguises.

in 3 words: soft, thought, documenting


sideofcake@gmail.com



Jen Rae VIC

is an artist, researcher & cultural producer, currently undertaking PhD research at RMIT. Her practice-led research investigates cultural adaptation to climate change & related environmental & social issues, through interdisciplinary collaboration, collective action & public art.  She is a co-founder and director of The Riparian Project, a public art initiative that aims to influence a shift in livestock grazing practices in the state of Victoria. 

in 3 words: public art, ecology & interdisciplinary collaborative practice
www.jenraeis.com


Sharon Clues VIC

is a melbourne based textile artist with a passion for natural fibres & fabrics. she is the owner and creator of ethelruby –a luxury knit label & is currently studying textile design at RMIT.  she has a yarn & fabric stash that threatens to overtake her studio & her knitting machines appear to be breeding.

 in 3 words: play, experiment, joy
                                                                                  http://sclues.blogspot.com.au/p/contact.html
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ethelruby
sclues@gmail.com

                                                             Susan Frisch VIC

It’s her love of the Australian landscape that informs much of Susan’s work. Her practice is concerned with the preservation of these rugged, yet fragile, environments, which are under the ever increasing threat of destruction. Her current work experiments with the combination of metal and glass, the properties of both mediums echo elements of the environment, glass for its fragility and vulnerability and metal for its strength and resilience. Susan has exhibited work both locally and nationally.

in 3 words: reflective, passionate, unplanned
                                                                                                 susan@susanfrisch.com.au

Margaret Boyle VIC

 As an Experiential Arts Therapist and practicing potter, I aim to teach self expression in my classes. Clay is a language all it own, it can relax, it can talk, and it can reach the inner self without one knowing. Half of my working time is spent in the disability field helping with expression and self acknowledgment, through the medium of clay. Working with the local community in festivals, exhibitions and weekly classes takes up the other half of my working life. I have a home studio where I relax and create. I am working in porcelain as a wheel potter, and using transfers and 22cr gold trim. Another of my favorites is a bright blue barium dry glaze, which I place on Greek inspired pots.

Margaret is part of the www.treepotters.com.au which exhibit in the open studios of the Dandenongs, in May and October each year.

                                                                  in 3 words:experiential art form
                                                                 fernstudio@hotmail.com
 
Helen Earl NSW

My work emerges from the lived bodily experience of an environment and the investigation of the cultural, scientific and historical narratives of that environment. The contemplative experience layered with the inherent meanings and associations of a particular environment forms a poetic response to place.

3 words: ceramics, found objects

he.art@bigpond.net.au
http://www.visualarts.net.au/gallery/helenearl

Kristen Halkett VIC

Kristen Halkett is a Melbourne-based artist who flitters from one medium to the next in her practice. While she graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Photomedia, Kristen has found that she prefers the act of physically making something with her own hands. This has led her to begin her own label and blog, Hellkat Designs, with an emphasis on jewellery and the handmade. 

3 words: Maker, Tactile, Creative
hellkatdesigns.wordpress.com

Janice Kent-Mackenzie VIC

Commencing in 1989 Janice has worked as a Life Model for more than 250 tutors across all media :: life drawing / painting / sculpture / photography / ceramics / illustration /animation / public art / fantasy / period costume / portraiture / anatomical drawing /en plein air. For many years the demand was such that she regularly posed for 30+ hours per week.  For her Bachelor of Creative Arts (2008) from James Cook University, Janice majored in sculpture - and this underlies her efforts to create dynamic sculptural poses.  Even more Janice is greatly appreciated for her ability to portray emotion and - with all its flaws and imperfections - poignant aspects of the human condition. Using a treasure box of props and colourful accessories, she conveys unexpected energies from romantic to cheeky.  In complete stillness, or constant motion, Janice is a warm and dignified professional in all aspects. Her long-term ambition is to teach Life Drawing herself, and to see Life Drawing become utilised as an art therapy medium for addressing personal trauma and body image issues.

3 words: stillness and the imperfect human condition



Yanrong Wu

My name is Yanrong and I'm 20. I am from Singapore but I'm currently taking a degree in Communication Design at RMIT Melbourne. I was studying in Temasek Polytechnic previously, majoring in Illustration. Drawing, painting, storytelling and basically creating are the things I take pleasure in, as well as the ocean and sky, being inspired, discovering and getting lost.

3 words: Storytelling, Emotions, Details

wu_yanrong@hotmail.com 


Nicola McClelland VIC

Nicola studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London and completed a Masters at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. She currently resides in Melbourne, but has lived in England, Germany, West Africa, India and New Zealand. Her family history of migration   and work teaching refugee and migrant communities in England and Australia has greatly influenced her practice. She began as a printmaker and her practice has broadened to incorporate installation and site-specific works. She is drawn to ephemeral materials that evoke transience: water, salt, paper, wax and steel wool. She also selects and alters materials through cutting and collage processes. Her choice and transformation of these materials often reflects the fragility and transience of the human condition. Themes of migration and the poetics of loss, absence and transformation are central to her work. Her work has been exhibited in England and Australia and is represented in private, university and corporate collections in England, Italy, UAE and Australia.

3 words: Ephemeral materials, installation

Sharon Twining VIC

Clay forms the basis for most of my art work. Pieces are hand-built using slab or pinch technique. The work is either ‘raku’ or pit fired resulting in surfaces that vary in colour and texture. In my recent work I have been aiming to create a sense of ‘relationship’ between simple triangular forms. The overall aim for my work is to give the viewer a sense of  exploration.
 in 3 words: explore, discover, enjoy
podpots@yahoo.com   


Rebecca Delange VIC

Delange’s practice predominantly focus on sculpture and object based installation. She is centrally concerned with articulating the immaterial in the material, focusing on an investigation into actions, materials and process that physically articulate ideas regarding impermanence, transience, excess, decay and mutation as three-dimensional forms and spatial interventions. Completing her Honours year in at VCA in 2008, Rebecca has been the recipient of a number of awards and prizes, recently participating in exhibitions at The Linden Center for Contemporary Art and Utopian Slumps.
in 3 words: sculpture and assemblage 
http://rebeccadelange.blogspot.com.au/ 


Sarah Parker VIC

In a mass produced society the balloon has become a universally familiar object across many cultures and communities. Creating ceramic balloons allows me to transform these every day, mass produced objects into precious forms and redefine the way people perceive them. When created in clay their state of impermanence becomes permanent, taking them beyond the ephemeral to the sculptural. I have been interested in the inflation and deflation process of a balloon and how to capture the fleeting and transitory moments using the contrasting medium of clay. Working with the modeled balloon aims to broaden the viewer’s mind to the diversity of clay, and to raise the awareness about ceramics as a sculptural medium.


Tim Denshire-Key VIC

G’day my name is Tim Denshire-Key. I’m a recently graduated Designer (Industrial), from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. I’m interested in sustainable design, social innovation and service design. I like to make things. I like to get things happening. I like to help others realise they can do this too. I’m interested in projects that encourage people to build their creative confidence, and become active within the creative process what ever it may be. If you would like to get in touch, suss out timtdesign.com for details.

in 3 words: Sustainable Social Service
  www.timtdesign.com

Nola Smith VIC

Diploma of Arts (Ceramics) Box Hill Institute 2011. Has been involved over many years with local arts community. Past Volunteer Tutor (Ceramics), the Living and Learning Centre Nillumbik. Currently participating with community through Sculpture and Pottery Workshops of Diamond Valley Arts Society. My work is based on exploration of the qualities of ceramic materials. I am always looking at my natural surroundings and trying to reproduce the colours and textures I see there. My favourite things to make are medium to large pots or sculptural pieces designed for specific outdoor settings.

3 words: approximately - exactly - natural
smithceramic@hotmail.com


Szilvia Gyorgy - NSW

has been practicing as a designer, maker of ceramic objects & porcelain lights that relate to human space.She has taken up jewellery as a way of exploring the qualities of various materials, structure, movement & colour in direct relation to the human body. In her ceramics she searches for new forms by the tradition of deconstruction, she is interested in order and chaos, shadow-play of positive and negative areas and varying planes that shift according to perspective. The materials used are primarily porcelain with some terracotta clays. She looks at jewellery as wearable ideas that open up dialogues between the materials, as well as the movement and shape of the human body. She uses 925 silver, nylon coated stainless steel cables, and coloured polymers. Her experiments are especially successful when the form is created by employing the nature of the material.Szilvia has been showing locally and internationally.

3 words: explorer, potter, jeweller
szilverworks@gmail.com
 www.szilverworks.com



Sharyn Masson VIC
My “Out of the Earth” series of ceramic pieces were hand-built using layered and fringed strips of clay.  The almost quarried effect are intended to give them an ancient, unprocessed quality.  I love the natural properties of the raw materials, especially raku clay and the changes that the firing can create. Charles Darwin described tropical reefs as “Oases in the desert of the ocean”.  The Great Barrier Reef is one such oasis.  My “Corallinus Atoll” cluster was fashioned from Southern Ice porcelain.  Inspired by our own Great Barrier Reef, my Corallinus Atoll illustrates the fragility of the pallid, bleached coral which holds a haunting, lifeless beauty. My main artistic passion lies in the sculptural medium.  The carving and moulding of a piece is exciting, almost like peeling back the layers to expose the form within.
  
3 words: organic, boundless, engaging

seventhousandoaks.org 
Miyuki Jokiranta VIC

seven thousand oaks is a not-for-profit, whose mission is to create a space where art and sustainability connect. We place art in the public sphere to raise awareness around sustainability issues and we are an online resource of artists, green arts suppliers and information around the sustainable arts movement.

Cassandra Littlehands Smith VIC

A fledgling artist and writer exploring the human condition. Two major themes which mark my work are empathy and curiosity. Commonly my work has adopted a pseudo-experimental form, involving testing out real reactions from random participants in everyday situations. I hope to make installations and sculptural objects that can engage and activate the viewer, encouraging participation of both artist and viewer alike. 

3 words: Walking, Curiosity, Participation.

Jess Kelly 

makes intricately detailed multi-component installations and small-scale sculptures with paper, glass, dead leaves, ink, water, silk thread, egg shells and apple seeds. The inclusion of found, often “worthless” or discarded objects in her work, combined with precious materials and hours of meticulous labour, questions the nature of (prescribed) value. While she works she often thinks about how things fit together: skeletons; buildings; light and (physical) matter; ecosystems; lovers.

3 words: intimate, obsessive, liminal


Debbie Symons

was born in 1970 in Melbourne, Australia. Symons’ formative training was at Victoria College Prahran (VCA) in the fields of painting and printmaking. She is currently completing a PhD on Anthropocentrism and the Environmental Dilemma at Monash University with the assistance of an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship. Her work utilizes environmental data to investigate and interrogate the inextricable links between environmental degradation and free market capitalism; exploring mankind’s ecological conundrum. She has worked with scientific organisation such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species to facilitate the statistical information basis pertaining to her works. Symons’ works have been shown internationally through the International Urban Screen Association and nationally; Urban Screens, Federation Square, RMIT Gallery, Albury Digital Outdoor Gallery, Craft Victoria, Trocadero Art Space, Shifted Gallery, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, The Substation and 69 Smith St Gallery. Symons’ was awarded the Emerging Artist New Work grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2009.  

3 words: art, science interdisciplinary research
debbie@debbiesymons.org.au
 
Vicki Grima NSW

artist editor teacher

My small porcelain bowls are handmade using the pinch method. Starting with a small ball of clay, the form opens out as I slowly move my fingers, spiralling around the walls. As the vessel emerges, I echo the curve of my cupped hands. Fingers prints and dents are left on the surface, evidence of the process of making. I use Cool Ice porcelain, a delicate, yet dense white body which is fired in my electric kiln to 1220ºC. When held to the light, the porcelain’s translucence is enhanced by textures pressed into the surface whilst still moist. Nature is a constant inspiration – irregular repetition, delicate intricacies and inherent patterns which create and define the form. My ceramic practice is squeezed between my position as Editor of The Journal of Australian Ceramics and Executive Officer of The Australian Ceramics Association. I enjoy the rare times I spend in my studio in Botany surrounded by factories and close to the airport and the port yet nearby to many beautiful beaches. It is a small, quiet and peaceful space surrounded by a busy city. 

I make small, unique, personal ceramic pieces.

3 words: small time + small space = small work


VIC Artists
Jasmine Targett
Sally Cleary
Rebecca Mayo
Tony Conway
Caroline Brandt
Jacinta Richardson
Stephanie Watson

Thomas Ryan
Atika Fraval
Janice Kent-Mackenzie
Rebecca Norris
Phoebe Norris
Shelley Grayden
Susannah Larritt
Cat Finnerty
Ian Wadley
Rebecca Delange
Adele Macer
Annette Martin
Julia Storey
Wen Shobbrook
Annie Quail
Elise Sheehan
Naomi Troski
Ri Van Veen
Lucy Hall
Sophie Harle
Ella Leoncio
Susan Frisch

Georgia Lancaster
Rosanna Cladwell
Kobie Nel
Ulla Britta Westergren
Kathryn de Jesus
Di Richardson 
Jenna Wilson
Gabbie Hoff
Beka Hannah
Pauline Meade
Carmen Couche - Latrobe
Yanrong
Simone Steel
Suse Scholem
Sinead Kennedy
Tammy Warner
Annie Dowd
Miriam McGarry
Sari Harris
Sharyn Masson
Kristen Miller
Dee Strandly
Rachel Berry
Jacqueline Vermer
Cindy Leech
Declan Donald
Friederike Heinsdorff-Neill
Kim Davis
Sue Lawson
Laura Elphinstone


NSW Artists
 
Liane Rossler
James McCallum
Bridget Kennedy
Corrine Fisher
Hannah Fisher
Emilie Fisher
Jude Belnick
Maddy Ghosh
Ximena Tapia
Zeynep Bayraktar
Canbora Bayraktar
Rose Daridis
Brooke Thompson
Beau Thompson
Lucie Macany
Zoe Brand
Melanie Ihnen
Nina Still

Tilly Torrevillas
Ayla Ihnen